Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. Early human beings similar to present day man existed on every continent but ________
no later than ________.
a. Australia; 200 A.D.
b. India; 30,000 B.C.E.
c. Antarctica; 20,000 B.C.E.
d. Africa; 1,000 B.C.E.
4. What caused social tensions dividing the rich and poor to appear among the Hebrews?
a. The shift from farming to wage earning.
b. The breakdown of the patriarchal society.
c. All of these choices.
d. Famine and a decreasing money supply.
5. What has been called the single most far-reaching cultural event in world history?
a. The downfall of the cast system in India.
b. The large-scale adoption of Mahayana Buddhism by the Chinese.
c. The implementation of Hindu rituals by many Christian sects.
d. The defeat of the kingdom of Israel by the Romans.
6. Which of the following does Adler quote as a famous saying attributed to Confucius about
the personal conduct of rulers?
a. They must set a good example for their subjects.
b. Without the support of a higher being the state will crumble.
c. They must rule with an "iron fist".
d. They cannot exist without the confidence of its people.
10. Which one of the following best describes Augustus' view of the territorial future of the
empire?
a. Augustus was completely indifferent to "foreign" policy.
b. Augustus did more to lose Roman territory than any Roman leader before
him.
c. Augustus was basically conservative about further expansion.
d. He was confident that it could be expanded.
11. Which one of the following is most directly associated with the Diaspora?
a. The rise of mystery religions.
b. The Jewish War.
c. The preaching of Paul.
d. The pax Romana.
13. To get salt from Tripoli to Gao the caravan would have to pass through:
a. Kilwa
b. Agadez
c. Terhazza
d. Cairo
16. Which one of the following about the Gupta dynasty is NOT true?
a. It was distinguished by its emphasis on Buddhism.
b. It was distinguished by its expansion well into Southeast Asia.
c. It lasted more than one century.
d. It flourished about the time the Roman Empire was weakening.
19. It was not unusual for people in one village to starve when a surplus of food was only 100
miles away. This was due in large part to:
a. the refusal of one noble to help another.
b. the small size of kingdoms, preventing cooperation.
c. the Black Death.
d. poor transportation.
21. Which is not a theoretical element of the state as envisioned during the renaissance?
a. Territorial boundaries.
b. Moral authority.
c. Decentralization of authority.
d. Equality with other states.
22. This phenomenon best demonstrates that Mongol rule was not always destructive, but
provided clear material benefits to many peoples of Asia.
a. The adaptation of the yurt to military use.
b. The pax mongolica.
c. The Yuan dynasty.
d. The defeat of the Mongols at ains jalut in 1260 C.E.
23. The most deadly disease transmitted by Europeans to Native Americans was:
a. syphilis.
b. smallpox.
c. mental illness.
d. measles.
24.Which of the following is customarily used by historians, along with the reformation, to
define the modern era?
a. European voyages of discovery
b. birth of Martin Luther
c. death of Martin Luther
d. Papal indulgences
26. This was perhaps the "most absurd technique for governance ever devised."
a. The First Partition
b. The Royal Barber
c. Liberum veto
d. Catherine II
27. This was the greatest Muslim rival to the Ottoman Empire after the sixteenth century.
a. Gupta India
b. The Golden Horde
c. Safavid Persia
d. Mughal India
28. Which of the following resources or products is inconsistent with the report of Matteo
Ricci?
a. Iron usage compared to Europe.
b. Numerous firearms and cannons.
c. Abundant Saltpeter.
d. Use of Clay in fashioning superior pottery.
29. This religion seemed to gain the most adherents in Southeast Asia.
a. Christianity
b. Islam
c. Confucianism
d. Hinduism
30. Rank Latin American society in general from highest to lowest on the social scale.
a. Criollos, Mestizos, Indians, Peninsulares
b. Criollos, Mestizos, Peninsulares, Castas
c. "Whites," "blacks," "coloreds"
d. Peninsulares, Criollos, Mestizos, Indians
31. Science came to dominate the intellectual climate of Europe, displacing which traditional
discipline?
a. theology
b. medicine
c. philosophy
d. law
32. Which is not mentioned in the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen?
a. Freedom of opinion consisted with public order.
b. The right to property is sacred and inviolable.
c. All men are created equal.
d. The right to resist oppression.
35. This author was described as "the literary symbol of the brave but doomed individual
who challenges the destiny of ordinary souls and must eventually pay for his temerity by
defeat and death."
a. Augusta Leigh
b. Lord Byron
c. Charles Fourier
d. Victor Hugo
36. Aside from emancipating serfs, Alexander II presided over the Great Reforms, which did
not include:
a. judicial reforms.
b. the creation of a "county commission" called the zemstvo board.
c. the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
d. military reforms.
37. This event secured British control over India, vis-à-vis the French.
a. The Seven Years' War.
b. The tenure of French Governor Joseph François Dupleix.
c. The establishment of "factories" along the coast of India.
d. The uninterrupted reinforcement of economic control through the British East
India Company.
38. The European trade in African slaves strengthened or benefited which of the following?
a. Algeria
b. Zanzibar
c. the Niger delta states
d. South Africa
39. The main outlines of nineteenth century politics in Latin America were delineated by:
a. the unilateral mandates of the United States of America.
b. the caudillos.
c. Simon Bolivar.
d. a struggle between Enlightenment liberals and landed conservatives.
40. Which of the following are not listed by Adler as a "whole new industry" which "Sprang
up overnight" toward the end of the 1890s?
a. oil refining
b. aircraft manufacture
c. automobiles
d. steamship building
43. In the United States, the Second Industrial Revolution was basically complete. Which
was not a characteristic of the post-WWI USA economy?
a. A return to rural living.
b. The corporation and stock market investment.
c. Retail chain stores.
d. Mass production of consumer goods, such as automobiles.
45. One could confidently say this of totalitarian regimes and dictatorships.
a. There is no correlation between totalitarianism and dictatorship.
b. Only "Western" totalitarian regimes used dictators.
c. All totalitarian regimes were dictatorships.
d. All dictatorships were totalitarian too.
47. Which corresponds directly to the statement "not one step backward"?
a. North Africa Campaign
b. Barbarossa
c. Battle of Stalingrad
d. Battle of Britain
48. He not only founded an original school of art, but painted the two most famous paintings
of the 20th century.
a. Woolf
b. Pollock
c. Picasso
d. Monet
49. This may be one of the significant reasons why the USA did not intervene more directly
to stop the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956.
a. Fear of nuclear war.
b. The USA lacked the political will to intervene.
c. USA allies forced Washington not to intervene.
d. The USA hoped to convince Khrushchev to liberalize the USSR, and therefore
wouldn't run the risk of offending him.
51. Which was probably the most significant factor in Japan's post-war economic
development, in the opinion of many observers?
a. Consistent government support of business.
b. High levels of personal savings.
c. Loans to Japan by the World Bank and the international Monetary Fund.
d. Diversion of expenditures away from the military and into the civilian
economy.
52. An advocate of the economic Europeanization of Africa, based upon mineral wealth,
connected by railroads.
a. Rudyard Kipling
b. David Livingstone
c. Cecil Rhodes
d. Henry Stanley
53. The worldwide depression of the 1930s provided this perhaps unexpected opportunity to
some Latin American countries.
a. Forcible regime change through military coups.
b. Put Brazil permanently in the economic lead of all Latin American nations.
c. End all neocolonial involvement by European powers.
d. Weaken the neocolonial economic grip by developing neglected domestic
markets.
56. In the final analysis, this was the true ideological menace to world stability in the
twentieth century.
a. communism
b. democracy
c. nationalism
d. dictatorship
58. In Mesopotamian tradition ________ contains a story that is roughly equivalent to the
biblical narrative of the Flood.
a. Noah's Ark
b. The Odyssey
c. The Epic of Gilgamesh
d. The Illiad
60. The Assyrians were the most hated conquers in ancient history. Who finally took revenge
against the oppressors?
a. The Hebrew slaves revolted against the Assyrians.
b. It is still a mystery how the Assyrians were defeated.
c. A combined force of enemies and rebellious subjects overcame them.
d. The Persian Empire crushed the neighboring Assyrians.
.
61. According to Hinduism, when a person has lived life in perfect accord with his or her
dharma, death will lead to final release called:
a. samsara.
b. nirvana.
c. moksha.
d. thervada.
62. What invention opened up huge areas of northern and central China to agriculture?
a. crop rotation
b. horse collar
c. oxen yoke
d. iron plowshare
65. This Greek philosophy, started by Zeno, stressed the brotherhood of all men.
a. Stoicism
b. Cynicism
c. Platonism
d. Epicureanism
66. In what area did the Romans feel particularly inferior to the Greeks?
a. administration and commerce
b. culture and imagination
c. military
d. engineering
68. Which of the following does NOT apply to the North Americans?
a. Pictographs.
b. Old Ones.
c. Mound building.
d. More sophisticated than the Inca.
69. Which one of the following about the East African city-states is true?
a. Their city culture was looked down on and despised by the first Portuguese.
b. They traded in slaves, but not as extensively as in the Sudan.
c. These city-states were most powerful during Roman times.
d. The people and their culture are sometimes called Swahili.
70. Which of the following about Muhammad suggests that he was a reformer?
a. He improved the status of Arab women.
b. He enjoyed the materialism of the Arab world.
c. He opposed greater religious freedom and diversity.
d. He supported Arab animism.
71. Which of the following was NOT a significant achievement of the Abbasids?
a. Promoting the work of Aristotle.
b. Conquest of Constantinople.
c. The development of constitutional law.
d. Innovative works in geography.
72. This precipitated the final stage of the decline of Buddhism in India.
a. Muslim invasions
b. the Rigveda
c. diversion of the Silk Road
d. coastal trade
73. The historical period immediately following the end of the the Zhou dynasty is called:
a. The Chou dynasty.
b. The era of peaceful equilibrium; The Qin dynasty.
c. conquest of the Central Asians and the opening of the Silk Road.
d. Era of the Warring States.
74. During the Heian Era, black teeth were aesthetically accepted by:
a. the upper class.
b. the lower class.
c. Buddhist nuns.
d. Samurai.
77. Which was not a change made to the Mongol army under Chinghis Khan?
a. Division of cavalry into "light" and "heavy."
b. Each "tumen" was subdivided into smaller tactical units.
c. Reinforcement of tribal identity within military organization.
d. Adapting Chinese armor for heavy cavalry.
78. Which was NOT an element of the patterns of intrusion established by the Portuguese
and followed by all their successors?
a. Conclusion of treaties with native populations.
b. Initial displays of marital strength.
c. Dealing through the local native leadership.
d. Cooperation with Hindu or Muslim merchants.
79. Which provision of the Edict of Nantes indicates that it was more of a "truce" than a
"peace"? Huguenots could:
a. fortify their towns.
b. hold office.
c. worship without harassment.
d. become King of France.
81. The Janissary infantry corps was originally "recruited" through the involuntary
conscription of Christian children. These same children, once trained in the corps, called
themselves:
a. victims of abuse.
b. the Harem Government.
c. the Sultan's Nemesis.
d. willing Slaves of the Sultan.
83. This traditional Japanese art from is based in the "floating world."
a. kabuki
b. literature
c. calligraphy
d. haiku
84. The urban classes and the wealthy could afford to regard children differently than
peasants. Which applies to the viewpoint of urban classes and the wealthy as compared to the
attitude of peasants?
a. They loved children more, particularly during infancy.
b. Rich children rarely suffered from childhood disease.
c. Children were not considered a form of "social security."
d. They had a more relaxed view of child labor.
85. The ideas of David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus were merged by members of this group
into a philosophy that argued "the poor will always be poor" and "the rich have a duty to
protect themselves from the moral and other faults of the poor."
a. Middle Classism
b. Manchester liberals
c. Enlightenment
d. Free enterprise
86. Alexander II aimed at a quick resolution of the "serf problem" and employed several
principles to support his command to that effect. Which is not one of his principles?
a. Making peasants (i.e., former serfs) collectively responsible for taxes.
b. Giving land to the peasants.
c. Making peasants legally equal with other citizens.
d. Reform of the army.
87. This was the major underlying cause of the eventual British occupation of Egypt in 1882.
a. Unpaid debt accumulated by Khedive Ismail.
b. Ibrahim's attack on the Ottoman Empire.
c. The construction of the Suez Canal.
d. Threat of military attacks against British interests in the Middle East.
.
88. This event in the 1860s changed the long-standing European impression that Africa had
little value.
a. The discovery of Ivory.
b. The discovery of gold.
c. The discovery of diamonds.
d. The discovery of natural pharmaceuticals from jungle plants.
89. They formed a virtual government within a government, making and executing their own
laws and practically acting as kings within the new "republic" of Mexico.
a. Caudillos
b. Latifundios
c. Emigrantes
d. Descalzados
90. Between 1800 and 1960, which was the preferred destination for European Emigrants?
a. South America
b. Canada and Australia
c. Siberia
d. The United States
91. Adler described Darwin's "Origin of Species." Which does not apply to that description?
a. Not all humans "descended" through natural selection.
b. God was superfluous.
c. It is a mechanical explanation.
d. It failed to define a driver for the "automobile of evolution."
92. Which did Adler list among the "effects " of WWI on the "collective European psyche"?
a. Open diplomacy.
b. Suspicion of authority figures.
c. Female employment.
d. Faith in liberalism, parliamentary democracy and science appeared justified.
93. There were two major economic innovations in the first half of the twentieth century, one
being the Soviet version of Marxist economics. What was the other?
a. Adoption of Stalinist tactics by Hitler and Mussolini
b. Laissez-faire economics.
c. The creation of continental "free trade zones" like the EU and NAFTA.
d. Keynes' belief that governments should intervene to smooth out the ups and
downs .
94. Which did not contribute toward the establishment of the new Russian government under
Lenin?
a. Demoralized garrison troops refused to obey their superiors.
b. Lack of popular support for WWI.
c. The First Five Year Plan.
d. The imperial government was on the point of collapse due to the demands of
total war.
96. He "took up the cause of reform ("Three Principles") among the overtaxed and
impoverished peasantry."
a. Mao Zedong
b. Cixi
c. Chaing Kai-shek
d. Sun Yat-sen
99. This revealed internally just how stagnant (if not backward) communist economies had
become.
a. The "technology gap"
b. The Cuban Missile Crisis
c. Ostpolitik policies
d. The "missile gap"
102. This was a necessary prerequisite to staking out definite claims to the interior of
Africa.
a. gunpowder
b. post 1884 interest by Berlin
c. sufficient geographic information
d. nationalism
103. Many types of government have been tried in Latin America. Which seems to become
the most common over time?
a. Socialism
b. Corporatism
c. Democracy
d. Dictatorship
107. What is an example of a failed species that lived in Germany about 30,000 years ago
and then disappeared?
a. Neanderthal Man
b. Homo sapiens
c. Australopithecus afarensis
d. All of these choices
108. Which of the following was/were part of the Mesopotamian social structure?
a. slaves
b. freemen
c. all of these choices
d. nobles and priests
110. Which of the following accurately describe the city archeologists uncovered in present
day Pakistan?
a. A crude and struggling village.
b. None of these choices.
c. Small and not very old.
d. Advanced and urbanized.
113. Which of the following religions or cults would have appealed to the commoners of the
Hellenistic world?
a. Stoicism
b. Cynicism
c. Isis
d. Platonism
115. Which one of the following applies in regard to the Barbarian invasions?
a. The Vandals occupied Britain.
b. The Franks occupied the Italian Peninsula.
c. The Visigoths occupied the Iberian Peninsula.
d. The Ostrogoths occupied France.
116. This center serves as the most impressive example of Mayan culture achievements.
a. Chichén Itzá
b. Cuzco
c. Tres Zapotes
d. Tenochtlitlan
117. According to Ibn Khaldun, the earliest information about the Sudan's rulers was
apparently acquired through:
a. commerce and trade.
b. military conquest.
c. the discovery of an ancient library.
d. forced conversion to Islam.
118. Harun al-Rashid, one of the greatest Abbassid caliphs, was stubbornly resisted by which
Umayyad domain?
a. Turkey
b. East Africa
c. Spain
d. Arabia
120. The T'ang were militarily and culturally preeminent. Only one nation resisted their
influence successfully. Which one?
a. Japan
b. Korea
c. Vietnam
d. Tibet
125. Rank the following from the most autocratic to the least.
a. Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Romanov
b. Habsburg, Romanov, Hohenzollern
c. Romanov, Habsburg, Hohenzollern
d. Romanov, Hohenzollern, Habsburg
.
126. The Safavid ruler Ismail made this religious claim.
a. He was the Living word of Allah.
b. He was a living representative of the Hidden Shi'a Imam.
c. He was a descendent of Muhammad.
d. He was the Shah, or King of Persia.
128. Which of the following was not common to both the Spanish and the Portuguese
colonial administrations in Latin America?
a. Cultivation of sugarcane dominated economic output.
b. The viceroy, or governor, was solely responsible to the home government.
c. Judicial and military matters were managed by a colonial court located in each
province.
d. Virtually unlimited proprietary rights were granted to the original
explorers/conquerors.
130. Which of the following did not relocate to the Americas to fight with the
Revolutionaries?
a. Baron von Steuben
b. General Cornwallis
c. Tadeusz Kosciuszko
d. Marquis de Lafayette
131. The year 1842 is significant in the history of child labor in England because:
a. nine year old children were restricted to eight hours of heavy labor each day.
b. boys under ten years of age were no longer allowed to work in mines.
c. Charles Dickens exposed the working conditions forced upon children with
the publication of a new novel.
d. girls could not be forced to work until they had entered puberty.
132. Which nation did Adler not include in the list of reactionary conservatives?
a. Russia
b. Italy
c. Prussia
d. Austria
133. He was comparatively successful in changing the primarily agrarian economy of his
country into a mixed economy with the beginnings of industrial development.
a. Napoleon Bonaparte
b. Alexander II
c. Louis Napoleon
d. Mexico
134. This event in Qajar, Persia led to a revolt championed by Jalal ad-Din al-Afghani.
a. Russian encroachments upon the Caspian Sea.
b. Nasir ad-Din's lavish lifestyle.
c. Granting of a monopolistic tobacco concession to a British firm.
d. Creation of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
135. The rebellious nineteenth century criollos, many educated in Enlightenment liberal
ideals, rebelled in order to:
a. eliminate the peonage system.
b. eliminate "economic" imperialism.
c. raise taxes across the board.
d. replace the peninsulares as the political leaders.
136. This battle lasted over sixteen months and cost each side more than 1/2 million
casualties.
a. Ypres
b. Somme
c. Marne
d. Verdun
137. Germany was forced to bear a heavy financial burden of WWI reparations, which was
equivalent to five years of Germany's GNP. When Germany failed to make the 1923
payment, France responded by:
a. telegraphing the League of Nations.
b. invading the Ruhr area.
c. forgiving the debt.
d. declaring war on Germany again.
139. This event was a purge within the Nazi party itself, and completed Hitler's consolidation
of power.
a. The Enabling Act.
b. Night of the Long Knives.
c. The Nuremberg trials.
d. Introduction of martial law.
140. Which best describe(s) the "hallmark of Western culture since WWI"?
a. Superimposed traditionalist formalism.
b. Reflective defragmentation.
c. Alternative temporal voids.
d. Frantic empirical inquiry.
142. Which is not contained in both the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Vietnam's
Declaration of Independence of 1946?
a. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are inalienable rights.
b. Men must remain free and have equal rights.
c. All men are created equal.
d. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.
143. By 1900 all of Africa was under European domination, except for Liberia and:
a. Mozambique.
b. Angola.
c. Sudan.
d. Ethiopia.
144. The "Good Neighbor Policy" was initiated by the leadership of:
a. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
b. Ronald Regan
c. John F. Kennedy
d. Juan Peron
146. What most concisely sums-up what happened beginning with the fall of communism in
1989, through the peaceful removal of the communist party's power monopoly in 1991?
a. The Cold War was over.
b. It was "the best of times" and "the worst of times."
c. The world proved Stalin wrong in most respects.
d. The twentieth century was technically over.
Answers